Unauthorised payment taken from debit card

Hi,

I was on QE last weekend and upon checking my bank account when I returned home I have had two debits from Cunard. One that matches my onboard account perfectly, and a second random £22 debit. Has anyone else had this happen? I have called Cunard who have put it through to another department to check.

Many thanks

Ian

I had the same thing happen after staying in a hotel in NY a few year ago. I got my CC statement and the payment matched my bill. Then on my next CC statement there was another charge from the hotel. At first I was livid, then I remembered that we'd checked out but as we had a fair wait until the taxi we went to the hotel's bar and had lunch and I'd put it on my room. Of course I'd already settled my bill so what had happened is the hotel had correctly charged my card again.

I'm just saying that those are the types of thing that can happen, i.e. where it looks like a charge is incorrect when in fact it's not.

I have had similar in hotels, but always for charges I was due to pay. In this case by bill was paid in full and the additional charge is fictitious. Lets hope it does not take too long to sort out.

Hi,

 

I was on QE last weekend and upon checking my bank account when I returned home I have had two debits from Cunard. One that matches my onboard account perfectly, and a second random £22 debit. Has anyone else had this happen? I have called Cunard who have put it through to another department to check.

 

Many thanks

 

Ian

Hi Ian

This happened to me on QM2 in February 2015. Like you my onboard account was settled in full against the final statement but a second charge of US$110 was processed the day after I had disembarked the ship in Hong Kong. I was still in the Far East when I noticed the unauthorised charge and I simply contacted my card issuer and they "charged back" the unauthorised transaction. Needless to say I heard nothing further from Cunard.

More recently I experienced a second unauthorised charge of US$11 following my trip on QV. Again, I contacted my card issuer and they took care of repudiating the unauthorised charge.

In my opinion, there is little value in trying to contact the "correct" department at Cunard as one risks expending more time and money with no guarantee of success. I say, contact your card issuer and dispute the transaction that you did not authorise. They will reverse the transaction at the same GBP value and also any associated foreign exchange fee. Even if Cunard accept the error and process a refund, you may still be on the losing end due to exchange rate differences, hence the chargeback route being the better resolution.

I do wonder why these phantom charges crop up from time to time and whether it is a genuine mistake or perhaps an unscrupulous room steward charging for fictitious mini bar items on the final day after the final account has been processed. If it is a scam, not everybody is going to notice and some who do, may not do anything about it. In that sense it's a pure numbers game.

Yes I have just last week, see my post here.

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2421836

No experience of it with Cunard however for the occasional time this has happened to me I have had success sorting it out directly with the vendor.

I am reluctant to use charge back as the first recourse as it can have negative implications for the vendor and feel they should at least have an opportunity to rectify the program.

Nb I am in Australia and our charge back rules differ somewhat from the US and it is less commonly used.

In Recent Months, Yes I have had the odd extra charge suddenly charged to my CC after final statement. e mailed Cunard and had the charge credited. It is odd but happening more often to Forum members. WHY ? I now am wondering whether I should keep paying the Hotel Charge, But revert to tip in envelopes. On my last visit, I queried a small charge of only $4 which I had not made, only to be asked by the Pursers desk employee if I really wanted him to wade through the receipts to check ! Amazing That made me say yes, Needless to say I had not made the purchase. This type of behaviour by front Room staff does get you thinking.

I do wonder why these phantom charges crop up from time to time and whether it is a genuine mistake or perhaps an unscrupulous room steward charging for fictitious mini bar items on the final day after the final account has been processed.

Why would they do that ? It's not going in to their pocket after all.

I queried a small charge of only $4 which I had not made, only to be asked by the Pursers desk employee if I really wanted him to wade through the receipts to check ! Amazing That made me say yes, Needless to say I had not made the purchase. This type of behaviour by front Room staff does get you thinking.

So do they keep all those little bits of paper for everyone then ? And then file them ? There must be thousands.

On our first cruise I kept my receipts for the first few days but then decided what was the point ? Was I actually going to check each one at the end ? No, I was not. I've better things to do on my holiday.

And I have to say for $4 I agree with the man on the Purser's desk. I'd not have even considered querying the price of a half a lager in the grand scheme of things.

Why would they do that ? It's not going in to their pocket after all.

The mini bar items could though. Plus they benefit from the 15% service added and who knows if they receive commission from the "sale" too?

So do they keep all those little bits of paper for everyone then ? And then file them ? There must be thousands.

 

On our first cruise I kept my receipts for the first few days but then decided what was the point ? Was I actually going to check each one at the end ? No, I was not. I've better things to do on my holiday.

 

And I have to say for $4 I agree with the man on the Purser's desk. I'd not have even considered querying the price of a half a lager in the grand scheme of things.

They do keep all the receipts , they are sorted and filed at the end of every day by each department and are easy to check against your on board statement. I do not keep my copy of the receipt either, but I do know how much I spend. $4 is nearly £3.20 so if that happened to every one of the 2,695passengers that is a tidy profit.

I am sure you and the Pursers desk would soon shout out if their pay or Tax was wrong ! Or if you got overcharged at the Supermarket and they just implied so what.

Whats the difference ?

Its not the amount but the principle.

I'm sure that equally there will be things people buy that get missed off their account. Or more likely get assigned to the wrong account, which is more likely. So there is no profit being made because everything equals out.

Yes, if my tax bill was wrong I'd have something to say about it. But if it was £3.20 out at the end of the year I'd really not let it bother me. The effort involved in putting it right would far outweigh the reward.

I'd not queue up and then go through a wadge of receipts for £3.20.

I'm sure that equally there will be things people buy that get missed off their account. Or more likely get assigned to the wrong account, which is more likely. So there is no profit being made because everything equals out.

 

Yes, if my tax bill was wrong I'd have something to say about it. But if it was £3.20 out at the end of the year I'd really not let it bother me. The effort involved in putting it right would far outweigh the reward.

 

I'd not queue up and then go through a wadge of receipts for £3.20.

I bet the service waiters/stewards do not think $4 is minimal.

I bet the service waiters/stewards do not think $4 is minimal.

It's also clearly not minimal to you either.

A business that is deliberately padding and adding fictitious charges to a customer's account doesn't deserve their continued patronage. Problem solved.

I'm sure that equally there will be things people buy that get missed off their account. Or more likely get assigned to the wrong account, which is more likely. So there is no profit being made because everything equals out.

 

Yes, if my tax bill was wrong I'd have something to say about it. But if it was £3.20 out at the end of the year I'd really not let it bother me. The effort involved in putting it right would far outweigh the reward.

 

I'd not queue up and then go through a wadge of receipts for £3.20.

The issue here, IMO, isn't necessarily the money. It is what appears to be a systemic culture of illicit nibbling of cash from passengers.

We were on a Princess sailing and noticed charges that we did not make. Not large ones, but $4-6 here and there.

I made passenger services go thru all of the receipts....they found them all, and the ones with the bogus charges had no signature. Princess issued credit for them with no comment.

Personally, I think this is a hidden issue that the cruise lines contend with on a continuing basis. It would be interesting to know how they deal with the culprits when their chiseling is discovered.

I suppose it comes down to whether you think the cruise lines are deliberately adding the odd extra few dollars here and there in the hope that passengers do not notice or not. I personally do not think this is the case. I'm of the opinion that as there are thousands (even tens of thousands) of on board transactions each day, some mistakes are bound to happen.

But clearly people on here think it's company policy to add on fictitious transactions.

I suppose it comes down to whether you think the cruise lines are deliberately adding the odd extra few dollars here and there in the hope that passengers do not notice or not. I personally do not think this is the case. I'm of the opinion that as there are thousands (even tens of thousands) of on board transactions each day, some mistakes are bound to happen.

 

But clearly people on here think it's company policy to add on fictitious transactions.

No, I do not think the cruise lines are doing it deliberately. In the scenario I described, I think that individual servers could be generating bogus tickets to enhance their personal sales record and their paycheck.

There were no signatures on the tickets in question.

One of the highlights of my day was checking my onboard account.

Strangely, my husband had a row of 0000 but mine rose like a rocket:D

It is my accountant side . . .

No, I do not think the cruise lines are doing it deliberately. In the scenario I described, I think that individual servers could be generating bogus tickets to enhance their personal sales record and their paycheck.

 

There were no signatures on the tickets in question.

Oh, I see what you mean now.

Maybe then, but it seems unlikely.

One of the highlights of my day was checking my onboard account.

Never a dull moment in your cabin then !:D

If your Happy to have your account syphoned off then all well and good for you. I and others on this forum are not.